His young friend shook his head almost instantly, pushing him farther into the corner they were backed into, farther away from the approaching vampires. Thomas glared at him.

“Too many!” Eddie whispered back.

“I’ll use mind control,” Thomas suggested. It would even out the playing field. Four against two weren’t great odds, but if he could fight them with mind control, he and Eddie had a chance of winning the confrontation, should it come to a fight.

“No you won’t! Too dangerous. Follow my lead.”

Before Thomas could protest, Eddie pushed his back against the wall, then pressed his body against Thomas’s and kissed him. Stunned, Thomas froze. This could not be happening! He had to be dreaming, hallucinating. But everything felt real: Eddie’s hot lips on his mouth, his tongue pushing against the seam of his lips, demanding entry, one hand at his nape, holding him close, while Eddie’s other hand circled around Thomas’s waist to draw him into his body.

With a groan, Thomas parted his lips and invited Eddie in. When their tongues met, his entire body erupted in flames. Blood shot to his cock within seconds, bringing him to a full cockstand faster than he could have uttered a single word.

This was his dream come true.

11

Eddie realized that what he was doing was crazy, but he hadn’t seen any other way out. He wouldn’t allow Thomas to fight the four vampires with mind control. The last time Thomas had engaged in a mind-control fight with Keegan, his maker, he’d nearly died. And fighting four vampires with conventional means was suicide too. No, he owed him this.

And the deception might just work: after all, they were in the Castro, where gays behaved with a little less restraint than in the rest of the city. What they were doing here wouldn’t seem out of the ordinary. With a bit of luck, they could fool the four strangers into thinking that they were just some horny homosexuals who couldn’t wait to get into each other’s pants.

As long as they made it look realistic.

Eddie angled his head to dive deeper into Thomas’s mouth. To his surprise, he didn’t feel disgusted about kissing a man. On the contrary, he loved Thomas’s masculine taste, the firm stroke of his tongue against his, and the corresponding hard press of his hips. His lips were warm and welcoming, his breath hot and titillating. Lust shot through him, desire welled up. It was all for a good cause, he told himself. It had to look real, or the vampires would never believe it.

Allowing a moan to come over his lips, he released his hold on Thomas’s waist and brought his hand to his own leather pants, popping the button open. If he had to show his naked ass to the four newcomers to make them believe he and Thomas were lovers, then he’d do just that.

Without wasting another minute, he pulled the zipper down and tugged on his pants.

Thomas’s hands stopped him. Eddie wanted to protest and make him understand why he needed to do this, when he felt Thomas’s hand slide onto his ass, tugging on his pants.

In the front, his leather pants caught on something. Eddie’s breath hitched when he realized instantly what had happened: his pants had caught on his erection which had created a massive bulge under his Calvin Klein briefs.

Fuck! He had an erection? How the fuck had that happened? But before he could follow that particular thought process, he felt Thomas’s hands move to his groin, gripping the front of his pants and pushing them down. As one hand brushed over the bulge, Eddie hissed, “Fuck!”

releasing Thomas’s lips for a moment.

He inhaled sharply, but then Thomas’s lips were back, his tongue thrusting back into his mouth, exploring him, sparring with him. God, he’d never been kissed like that, with such passion, such power, such determination. No woman had ever done that. Was that how men kissed? Was that what it felt like?

Before he knew what he was doing, words he had no idea he was going to say came over his lips. “Touch me!”

His moaned command was followed by Thomas’s hand slipping into his briefs, pushing them down. Cool air blew against his cock a split second before a warm palm wrapped around him and squeezed. A bolt of electricity shot through him. His fangs descended without warning, and his hand gripped Thomas’s nape tighter, pulling him closer for a deeper kiss.

Thomas’s second hand pushed his briefs down fully, then palmed his ass. Fuck! He should make him stop, tell him that he wasn’t wired that way, that he couldn’t do this. He wasn’t gay!

This was all just to fool those vampires. But he couldn’t stop his body from reacting to Thomas’s touch and kiss. A kiss he, Eddie, had started.